The Lost Savior
by Victor4418
Summary: Naruto is found after going missing during a mission. He's hurt and unresponsive due to shielding himself mentally from torture. There are two Naruto's inside his mind: the fake Naruto who pretends to protect Naruto but really is real Naruto's inner revenge and then there's the real Naruto is trapped in his mind and must find a way to warn his team and village.
1. Chapter 1

**First Naruto Fanfic. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are always welcome!**

Naruto had been gone for three years from his village. After going on a solo mission, taking off in a fit of anger having found out that his father was the Yondaime and his mother was the previous container for the kyuubi, Naruto went missing. Several search parties looked for him, the groups consisting of all the chunin he had grown up with and his jounin mentor, Kakashi. However, after six months (the customary time given to look for missing ninja), they had to stop spending resources looking for him and cut their losses, leaving him marked as a rogue ninja. His friends mourned his absence and team 7 refused to give up, looking for any clues on the other missions they took. They were furious that Naruto had left them behind but more hurt by the fact that Tsunade, the current Hokage, had outright banned the village from mentioning his name amongst village members. The pain she felt at losing someone so close to her again was too much for her. The guilt of losing a third person she trusted and respected closed her off from the rest of those who still cared about her. Even Shizune could not get through to her, leaving the village in the hands of a depressed and broken Hokage.

During a mission to escort some well-known business men through the land of fire, team 7 had caught wind of a rumor of a secret ninja village that had been recently established around the same time Naruto had disappeared. The city folk had noticed several groups of ninja traveling to and from the area, but what the village of ninjas was called or who led the group was unknown. Anyone who tried to pry into the ninja village's business was swiftly dealt with. The results were not pretty and after a few brave souls had received their punishment of missing limbs, or worse, not even coming back at all, no one went near the ninja village. Feeling that the whole setup was suspicious, team 7 went on with their mission, making a mental note to scope the area on the way back home to Konoha. Two days later, they returned to the mysterious ninja village, keeping strictly to the perimeter for observation. After three days of intense spying, the three ninjas returned to Konoha to relay their findings to the Hokage.

What they had learned was that the ninja were mostly a group that kept to themselves. Rarely did anyone leave the village, which was highly unusual as most villages required money from missions to survive. This meant the village was either self-sustaining (which sounded highly unlikely) or they had been given funding from a very rich person. They also noticed that the village was extremely small and a lot of ninjas shared housing units. The problem with this observation was there were too many ninjas assigned per house. This led the group to believe underground establishments were at hand, something that was both unusual and suspicious. They also were able to learn that this ninja village was not registered with the list of ninja villages approved by the Daimyo, meaning it was an illegal village. All three observations led the group to believe that the ninjas were hiding something, and team 7 believed it to be Naruto or research that would lead them in the direction of Naruto. However, they needed to convince their Hokage that their conclusions were accurate.

"Hokage-sama, you have to realize where this is going. Naruto could be there right now, and we need to prepare an assault and retrieve him." Sakura pleaded with her leader and mentor.

"Absolutely not. You haven't given me any actual proof that what you are saying is factual. You made a few observations that could point towards that conclusion, but it could also point to several other different conclusions." Tsunade snapped, slamming her fist on her desk, the wood protesting at the force.

"Ma, ma. Would it really hurt to take out the village? It's not registered, so it's not like we are declaring war. We would be eliminating a threat on behalf of the Daimyo." Kakashi argued lazily, although anyone who knew him well could see he was tense.

"We can only do so under orders from the Daimyo himself. Since it's not registered, we can send a message alerting him of the situation and go from there."

"That could take too long. By then, all our clues will disappear." Sasuke answered.

"I can't just send assault teams wherever I feel like. It would send the wrong message to the other nations, making them think we are showing off or trying to provoke them to fight. The council of elders have to approve this whole thing anyway."

"Hokage-sama, forgive me, but screw the council. They don't do anything that doesn't benefit them. And you can't say no. I would think you of all people would want us to get him back. We've waited too long and had next to no luck finding him. What the council doesn't know won't kill them. Like you said, it's unregistered and therefore untraceable and unnoticeable. Cover up our attack, make it look like a mission. We can get in and out before you notice us gone." Sakura pleaded, watching her mentor eye them as she thought over what they said.

The minutes ticked by, team 7 waiting anxiously as Tsunade stood up and faced her window, thinking out different plans, strategies, and consequences. On the one hand, she really couldn't send them out on gut feelings. There was no hard evidence that there teammate was indeed in the village. On the other hand, she knew how they felt, losing someone precious and trying to get them back, no matter what, with no real way of knowing if they would ever succeed. She was torn between her duty as the Hokage and her duty to Naruto. She missed him dearly and she couldn't bear to see him get hurt further. If there was a chance he was alive, she couldn't risk being the reason he died. His blood would be on her hands.

"Alright, you can go. But you have to promise me that no matter what, you three will come back alive. I can't lose any of you. If that isn't possible, then I can't send you." Tsunade said as she faced the team. "And don't give me a bullshit answer that you'll be fine. I need you to seriously consider this."

"We can do it." Sasuke said without blinking an eye.

"Tsunade-sama, trust us. No one is going to try harder than us to succeed at this mission." Sakura answered.

"You have our word." Kakashi stated.

Tsunade sighed in exasperation. "You leave by dawn. The sooner the better. I can't cover for you for very long. Get in, find him if you can, get out and NO CASUALTIES!" Tsunade ordered, watching the team disappear from her office in a swirl of leaves. Sighing, she grabbed a hidden bottle of sake and poured herself a drink, guilt and sadness washing over her as well as a bit of fear at the hope she could sense, the thought of Naruto being alive fueling it by the second. "I hope this isn't going to end up a huge mistake. Please be alive Naruto." She whispered to her empty office.


	2. Chapter 2

**I have the next chapter ready to go!**

 **Now that I'm on summer break, I can devote some more time to this story, as well as the other little stories I've had sitting on the back burner.**

 **Author Notes**

 _First Off, I do NOT own Naruto, any characters, or materials used for Naruto. (Wish I did though!) If I didn't mention it previously, I'm saying it here and now._

 _Also, I wish to address some comments made on the story so far:_

Natsu93: You bring up some interesting questions. In this version of Naruto, I consider Sasuke to still be his usual moody self, however I am tweaking his personality just a bit to at least tolerate Naruto. I would say this is past the point of the Chunnin Exams and Sasuke has done some growing up, whether that's from hanging out with Naruto and his positive outlook all the time, or just realizing he can get his revenge on Itachi when he's more powerful. I wanted to include him in this story as I hate that he runs off and we don't really see him for a while. He's a cool character, even if he's not my favorite. Hopefully this helps you understand him better as you read the rest of the story. Keep sharing your thoughts! They help me keep the story interesting. 😊

TheRaptureDay: Glad you seem interested in it. I've never really published my work and I am pleased it is at least entertaining you so far. Hopefully you'll continue to stay interested in my story.

 **Now, on with the next part of our story.**

Team 7 had just left Konoha, moving swiftly through the trees to get to their destination. Since it was a stealth mission, all three members were on high alert, monitoring their surroundings more than usual to ensure no one followed or ambushed them. They spent the whole night traveling, forgoing any opportunity to rest. Tsunade had stressed the importance that they would only have a few days to complete the mission if she was to succeed in making it look like an actual mission without the council finding out about their plans.

They finally arrived at their destination about two hours after sunrise, hiding in the undergrowth near where the team believed one of the entrances to the underground portion of the village to be. They broke off into shifts, with two monitoring the area and the guards, while the other person slept. They had to wait until nightfall in order to avoid as many interferences as possible. Team 7's reasoning for waiting until night was that most civilians would be at home or asleep at night and hopefully the guards numbers would decrease for the night shift. Shadows also wouldn't be an issue if there was less light around.

Finally night arrived and the three huddled together to finalize their plans. Satisfied and feeling as well prepared as they could with their time limit and resources, they proceeded forward, sneaking up on the two guards near the entrance and knocking them out. Kakashi placed the guards in a stasis seal and used his summoning technique to send scout dogs ahead of them to scope out the area. The trio went deeper and deeper underground, seeing doors every few feet with different labels on them. Since none of them seemed useful towards their goals, they decided to simply do a quick check of each room to determine their contents before moving on. At the end of the first hallway, they came to a dilemma where it separated into multiple hallways. Here the dogs waited, wanting to receive further instructions from Kakashi.

"Pakkun, report." Kakashi demanded.

"No sign of him yet, we scouted the hallways further, but it seems like this is a maze meant to confuse intruders. Some of them are false and lead to traps, others lead to dead ends or loop back to another hallway, none of them seem to lead us to our target." Pakkun replied.

"Let's try tracking by scent. Sakura, pull out Naruto's headband and hold it in front of the dogs." Kakashi ordered. Moving quickly, Sakura pulled out her teammate's headband and did as she was told. The dogs each took a generous sniff and began splitting up to try the hallways again. As the three waited for the dogs to decide if they could indeed track Naruto, they decided on the next part of their plan.

"Sensei, we'll be running into some guards soon if we don't get moving." Sakura commented.

"Let them come, I could use a warm up." Sasuke said, stretching his arms above his head to prove his point.

"Warm up on your own time Sasuke. Focus on the task at hand." Kakashi snapped.

"Let me try to find something using the Sharingan." Sasuke replied.

'If it was that easy, don't you think I would have already done that, seeing as mine is more developed than yours?" Kakashi replied. "The whole underground area is laced with traps and illusions to confuse any intruding ninja. You could easily lead us the wrong way or get yourself killed."

"I know an illusion when I see one. Uchihas can't fall for cheap tricks." Sasuke argued.

"We will wait for Pakkun to return with the other dogs and if they still can't find anything on Naruto, we will have to search manually." Kakashi stated, ending the discussion.

Two minutes later, Pakkun replied with news. "We found his scent, but every time we try to follow it, the scent changes direction. We know the general area he might be in though. The scent is not recent, but it's not too old either. He could be here, but they also could have already moved him somewhere else."

"Well, that was really helpful." Sasuke snarked.

"I'm glad you see it that way Sasuke. We're heading in. Pakkun, lead the way and when you can't follow the scent anymore, we'll search the area room by room." Kakashi led the way, followed by Sakura, with Sasuke taking the rear to cover their backs. After five minutes of travel, taking out three more guards along the way, they made it to the spot where the dogs lost the scent.

"Each of you team up with a dog and take a hallway, check the rooms for Naruto or any information that could tell us where he is. Meet back here in 10 minutes. If you get into trouble, have the dogs alert me." Kakashi ordered, watching as each of his gennin students went down a hallway. By now, two hours had passed, and they were running out of time. The guards they had taken out would be noticed soon and they would be hard-pressed to get out of here without any injuries or losses. Kakashi checked each room he came across, reading the different labels. **Blood Samples, Genetic Testing, Experiments, Weapons Testing, Interrogation Rooms 1-5.** Each room held different instruments, some contained valuable information that Kakashi used his Sharingan to memorize for his report later on, but nothing led to Naruto having been at the village at any point. Frustrated, he returned to the meeting point with three minutes to spare. Sasuke also returned to the meeting point after another minute, having found nothing, but Sakura had yet to return. The two waited the remaining two minutes, but when the time was up, Sakura still had not returned.

"Sasuke, follow me, and watch our backs." Kakashi whispered as they went down Sakura's hallway. They scouted each room quickly, finding nothing valuable and reached the last room of the hallway. The door was partly open, alerting the two ninja that something was wrong. They quickly pulled out their kunai and snuck into the room, the dogs following them. What they found inside was extremely disturbing and would haunt them for many nights after. Sakura was passed out and in the arms of a ninja, two more enemy ninja lay unconscious on the floor, looking bloody after Sakura had pummeled them. The dog that had gone with Sakura had been sent back to his realm before he could alert anyone of the situation. The ninja who had managed to knock Sakura out currently held a kunai to her throat, but it wasn't what truly shocked the two remaining Konoha ninja. In the middle of the room was Naruto.

He was strapped to a table, wearing only shorts, and was extremely thin and pale. He was covered in kanji, what looked like a complex seal, and he was covered in fresh bruises and scars. What was truly horrifying was that his entire chest was cut open and you could see all of his organs exposed. Sakura had obviously reacted to such a gruesome sight and unfortunately gotten caught. Thinking quickly, Kakashi refocused his attention on the ninja in front of him, having to first rescue Sakura before he could try to help Naruto.

"I knew you Konoha ninja would be coming. It was only a matter of time. I'll make your ends quick, starting with this girl." The ninja said, going to yank the kunai through Sakura. Before he could follow through with his threat, he saw Kakashi quickly throw a kunai at him, forcing him to duck out of the way. He felt Kakashi coming at him and blocked the blow aimed at his head, sending his own kick out at the skilled ninja. Kakashi blocked the kick and managed to grab the ninja by the ankle, twisting the ninja by his leg, resulting in him having to rotate with the twist to avoid having his leg broken. At the same time he had to release Sakura, allowing Sasuke to snatch her and move her to safety. Kakashi moved on to hand to hand combat with the ninja, receiving and blocking blows. The ninja was obviously skilled, able to keep up with Kakashi and deal some damage to the Jounin. Needing to finish this quickly, Kakashi placed an Illusion on the ninja the next chance he got, having the ninja see a vision of him catching fire from Kakashi's fire ball attack. While the man was trapped in the illusion, Kakashi quickly tied him and the two other ninja up before checking on Sasuke and Sakura.

"How is she?" Kakashi asked.

"She's fine. A few broken ribs and a sleeping drug. She should be able to heal herself once she wakes up. In the meantime, she's going to be out for a while." Sasuke reported.

"Leave her be for a minute, the dogs will guard her. Come help me with Naruto." Kakashi walked over to his student and used his Sharingan to confirm that it was indeed Naruto in front of them and not a fake ninja. Seeing the seal on Naruto's stomach, as well as the Kyuubi's chakra, he knew that it was indeed Naruto.

"What were they doing to him? What is this seal?" Sasuke asked as he began to remove the restraints off of Naruto.

"I'm not sure, but I am going to have to put him in a stasis seal until we get back to Konoha. That's the only way I can think of transporting him in this condition." Kakashi answered, pulling out the scroll.

"Is that really safe? His guts are just hanging out. Can't we stitch the wound close?" Sasuke asked.

"Normally, I would say yes. However we don't have the time. The guards must know something is up and could be here any second. Sakura is unconscious and unable to heal some of the damage they have done to Naruto. We still need to escape and put enough distance between here and us without too many ninja following us. Once we get some distance, I can possibly have Sakura take a look at him, but she still may not be able to do anything if the damage is above her skillset. She is still learning and could do more harm than good." Kakashi quickly performed the hand signs and placed Naruto in the stasis scroll before attaching it to the inside of his vest for safe keeping. Scooping Sakura up, Kakashi led the way as Sasuke angrily followed his sensei.

As the two were leaving, Pakkun sensed a group of ninja heading their way and alerted Kakashi. Sasuke placed an illusion on the hallway to make it look like they weren't there and they managed to sneak by the group. Just as they were out of the clear, one ninja turned and dispelled the illusion, spotting the Konoha ninjas.

"Crap, a sensor ninja. Run Sasuke!" Kakashi said, fueling his legs with chakra as he took off. Sasuke didn't hesitate and quickly sent some fireballs behind him as he made his way out of the maze of hallways. The enemy ninja were close behind him and began throwing kunai and shuriken at him. Kakashi managed to close the hallway by using his Earth Wall technique to seal the area behind them. While the ninja were trapped, they fled down the remaining hallways, only to be stopped by another group of ninja.

"Do not let them escape. They have the prisoner." The leader ordered as the two sides clashed. Kakashi was having difficulty fighting, as he still had Sakura in his arms. He couldn't risk putting her down and having her captured again, but he also couldn't fight at his full capability having to maneuver her out of harm's way while fighting back. Sasuke was doing pretty well, but he was heavily outnumbered 5 to 1 and it was wearing him down. The second he landed a hit on one ninja, two others managed to swoop in and land their own hits on him, whether with hands or weapons. He tried using his knowledge of traps to trick the ninja, but these ninja were very skilled, obviously meant to tie up any loose ends they faced. Kakashi could see that he and Sasuke were running out of options. Having no other options, he grabbed Sasuke and used an Earth technique to quickly bury underground and head towards the exit. It was a last-ditch effort as it used a lot of chakra to transport himself and two others the long distance to the surface as they were deep underground.

Once they reached the surface, Sasuke quickly followed Kakashi into the trees, looking in all directions for pursuers. Seeing none in the nearby vicinity, he quickly set some basic traps in place, hoping it could diminish the numbers slightly. A good 10 minutes later, the duo could feel the chakra of 15 pursuers. Cursing their luck, Kakashi changed tactics and handed Sakura over to Sasuke, having him run ahead while he set up more advanced traps. Once complete, he took off and soon caught up to Sasuke.

Keeping ninja silence, they made their way through the countryside for another 20 minutes before they came across a decent sized civilian town. Hoping to hide and lose their pursuers, Sasuke and Sakura transformed into ordinary looking people and walked into the middle of the town, checking in to a hotel for the night. Once upstairs, Sasuke laid Sakura on the bed and sat in a chair nearby.

"Now what? They should be here soon and we're sitting ducks." Sasuke grouched as he watched Kakashi peek through the window.

"We'll have to wait until Sakura wakes up before we can do anything. She needs to be able to fight if we are to make it back to Konoha. We'll keep the disguises for now, since the ninja could figure out pretty easily that we would use this town to ditch them. They'll be looking for us for a few days, time we don't have, so we'll need to get back to Tsunade immediately." Kakashi replied, moving away from the window. "Let's treat your wounds and then you should rest. I'll take the first watch."

"I'm fine, just some cuts." Sasuke replied. "You're bleeding pretty badly."

"Just a shoulder wound, it'll be fine.' Kakashi quickly bandaged his shoulder and then sat in a chair facing both the window and the door. "I'll wake you in a few hours to trade shifts. Be prepared to leave at any time." Kakashi said as he watched Sasuke crash on the couch.

In town, the enemy ninja had arrived and began to scout the area, asking civilians if they had seen the intruders. No one was able to confirm that the ninja had been there, but they knew that the Konoha ninjas were cable of many tricks. Setting up a perimeter, they sent some groups ahead to the next town while the rest stayed behind to check out the local establishments for their target. They knew if they didn't retrieve the prisoner soon and kill the intruders, they would most likely be killed themselves by their boss. This left them no room for error, pressuring them to succeed. Their time was running out and no one wanted to face their boss empty-handed. The hunt was on.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note** : I realized I made a few small errors in the previous two chapter. I will try to fix them later, but just in case you're confused here were the errors. I also apologize for the delay in updating, however, I am a busy person and do what I can to update as often as possible.

Tsunade didn't mind talking about Naruto with team 7 because they worked with Naruto and still cared about him after everyone else gave up. I can go back and make it, so it still pains her to hear his name.

When Sasuke and Kakashi get to the civilian town, it is Kakashi (not Sakura) who henges into a civilian. Sakura is still unconscious and therefore cannot henge herself, however I will have it where Kakashi places an illusion over her, so she looks like a civilian to everyone else.

If you see any other mistakes, feel free to let me know and I can try to change it.

Now, on with the story!

It was now morning in the town and Kakashi was sleeping on the couch, having traded places with Sasuke earlier in the morning when he could no longer stay alert. His chakra drain was a concern, but some sleep would help replenish some of the loss. Sakura also slept, though she was on the bed Kakashi had placed her on when they first arrived in the room. Sasuke sat in a chair guarding the two but he was more focused on trying to figure out what happened over the last couple of hours.

It was obvious the dobe, Naruto, had been through torture. What that meant for him in the future would be unknown. There was no guarantee he would be able to continue as a ninja, and even if there were no long-term effects to hold him back, he was now three years behind his peers. There was a good chance that Tsunade would have to place him on a different team to maintain balance, despite what Team 7 would want. She could also keep Naruto on their team, knowing not many Jounin would want to train him, but it would hinder the team and the village if they were to downgrade their skills to catch Naruto up to their skill level. Of course, Naruto had shadow clones that could speed up the training process, but three years was a long time to miss a lot of things.

There was also the question of what group had taken Naruto to begin with and why. While he was investigating his portion of the rooms, he hadn't really discovered anything useful in what was going on at the base. He did learn one thing; the village had a sponsor, which meant someone else knew about the village and possibly of the actions taken against Konoha by kidnapping one of their ninjas, especially their Jinchuriki. To him, the only reason they would want a genin like Naruto was because of the Kyubi. Sasuke still couldn't understand what they were planning on doing with the unholy demon if they had managed to free it, but it definitely was no good for anyone who got in its way.

Sasuke's biggest concern is how Naruto would handle the whole situation. Not having been in the village for three years, tortured extensively, and not knowing if he would live to the next day must have affected him in many ways. Mental, physical, and even emotional trauma could ruin anyone, but all three together could destroy a person completely. Would Naruto be able to recover? Would he even live to make it to the village? Kakashi's stasis scroll wouldn't keep him alive forever, it was meant for short term transportation of criminals, not keeping injured alive. Sasuke didn't know if a stasis scroll had even been used for injured people before now. He had to admit it was easier transporting Naruto this way though, with Sakura already out of commission for the moment, Kakashi and Sasuke were lucky to get their group to safety in one piece. Sasuke continued to mull over his thoughts, waiting for their next course of action.

As the morning passed, Sasuke noticed multiple chakra signatures patrolling the town. This was not a good thing if the group hoped to make it out of the town undetected. It would be almost impossible if the sensor ninja from the battle last night was amongst the group. Sensor ninjas were capable of detecting almost any level of illusion or henge, making them a formidable enemy to face. Only high level jounin ninjas and S-Class shinobi could out fool most sensor ninjas. Sasuke knew his Sharingan stood no chance against the sensor ninja at his current level, but it would help him in figuring out which ninja, if any, was the sensor in the group.

Kakashi woke up around noon, feeling better, but still sore and tired. He redressed his shoulder wound, taking care to cover the wound with a dark shirt so the blood wouldn't be as noticeable. Sasuke went to the lobby to order some food to be delivered to their room while Kakashi freshened up. Upon returning to the room, Sasuke found Kakashi using his Sharingan to examine Sakura.

"The sleeping drug is out of her system. I'm going to wake her up, so I can help her heal her ribs before she looks at Naruto. We will need to come up with a plan to return to Konoha without being detected by those enemy shinobi." Kakashi spoke to Sasuke as he gently shook Sakura's shoulder. Face scrunching up in pain, she slowly opened her eyes. Upon seeing Kakashi hovering over her, she immediately became more alert and tried to get up, only to let out a hiss of pain as Kakashi pushed her back down.

"Where are we? What happened? Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked in rapid fire succession.

"Welcome back Sakura. We're in a hotel. You got hurt. See if you can fix you're broken ribs." Sasuke ordered, receiving a glare from the pink-haired ninja as she quickly examined herself and began doing exactly as he said.

"Naruto is in a stasis scroll. I can't heal his injuries, but I'm hoping you can help him somewhat until we make it back to the village. If anything, you should be able to use some temporary stitches on him. We're surrounded by enemy ninja, one is possibly a sensor. We have to move fast, not only to get as far away from here as possible to avoid capture, but to get Naruto medical assistance as well." Kakashi relayed to Sakura as she finished healing her ribs.

"I've never heard of anyone using a stasis scroll to treat injured people. Have you done this before Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura inquired.

"No. It was the only option I had since we had to carry you out of the ninja village and fight at the same time. I couldn't risk hurting Naruto further or having him recaptured." Kakashi replied as he pulled the scroll out of his vest. Using his sealing knowledge, Kakashi unrolled the scroll and released the seal, freeing Naruto and placing him on the bed Sakura had occupied moments before. Sasuke watched as Sakura flinched at seeing their teammate so seriously injured. She immediately began her examination on him, using her healing techniques that she had learned from Tsunade and Shizune where she could.

During this time, the food Sasuke had ordered had arrived, allowing Kakashi and Sasuke to eat while Sakura helped Naruto. She refused to stop for a break to eat, only doing so about an hour later when her chakra was spent. She washer her hands and flopped into a chair, sweat beading on her forehead. She quickly grabbed an apple and a muffin, chewing quickly, before sharing her thoughts on Naruto's condition.

"I've manages to seal the wound on his chest and stomach, but it's a temporary patch. The most it will do is keep his blood and organs inside of him. However, the skin and muscles I repaired are weak and any further damage done to the area could reopen the wounds. It's basically a thin bandage I've placed between his internal functions and the outside environment. He has multiple injuries to his organs as well as several broken bones. If we can get back to Konoha quickly, he should make a full recovery. He'll have the scars for the rest of his life, but that's all that should remain physically. I also noticed the Kyubi was not able to help with any of the healing process. I can't say why, just that it was dormant the entire time I worked on him. I can't tell you what will happen when he wakes up or how he's doing mentally. We'll need specialists to look at him for that kind of information once he wakes up. Our best chance of his survival would be to place him back in the stasis scroll, but I wouldn't recommend it as we don't know the long-term effects it can have on using it multiple times on a person in a short amount of time." Sakura watched as Kakashi and Sasuke looked at each other before thinking about what she had said.

"So, what you're saying, is that we have to wait for him to wake up before we can leave." Sasuke summarized.

"Yes, however I can't tell you when that will be." Sakura replied.

"Could you wake him up if we needed to leave in a hurry?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm not sure. I can definitely try, but again, that'll be up to Naruto. He can't travel for a long distance in his condition." Kakashi nodded his head, showing he understood. "What do we do until he wakes up?"

"We come up with a plan to get us out of here. We'll take shifts in and out of the room to monitor the patrol shifts and listen for any valuable information. I'm going to see if I can get word to Tsunade and possibly receive backup. Remember, we must stay henged whenever we leave the room. We can't risk anyone knowing what we look like or who we are. Sakura, you will need to pick a name and a look to complete your disguise while we travel." Kakashi ordered looking at his two teammates, seeing the determination in their eyes. Having a plan and goal made their job that much easier for all three, knowing their friend was safe for the moment and with them, and that they were a short distance away from getting home. Nothing was going to stop them from seeing their goal met.

Sasuke stood up to stretch and take the tray of food back to the lobby to be cleaned. Once he reached for the tray, a knock sounded at the door. Kakashi immediately placed an illusion over Naruto to make him disappear, then henged himself with Sakura and Sasuke doing the same. Sasuke went to answer the door, opening it just enough to see who was on the other side.

Mahama! Until next time! I would love to hear any feedback you might have in regards to the story.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sasuke stood up to stretch and take the tray of food back to the lobby to be cleaned. Once he reached for the tray, a knock sounded at the door. Kakashi immediately placed an illusion over Naruto to make him disappear, then henged himself with Sakura and Sasuke doing the same. Sasuke went to answer the door, opening it just enough to see who was on the other side._

"Room service." A little lady stood with fresh towels and sheets in her arms, surprised to see the furious glare on the young Uchiha's face. Startled, she took a step back, fear plastered on her face.

"We would like to skip the room service. We are checking out of this room shortly." Sasuke stated. "Thank you for your time." He quickly shut the door and relocked it, before turning back to the group. "We need to go, now."

"Agreed. I'll go check us out of the room. Sakura, can we carry Naruto as he is now, or should we try the stasis scroll again?" Kakashi asked her.

"Let's try to avoid the stasis scroll. It hasn't been used for such a purpose before and I don't know how it will affect Naruto's condition, especially since the Kyubi isn't healing him at the moment. I can carry him, but you and Sasuke will need to fight if anything happens."

"Sasuke, you'll be on point for the journey. I'll take the rear. We need to go at full speed and get to Konoha immediately." Kakashi left the teens and headed downstairs to the lobby to check the group out of the room. While he was waiting for the clerk to finish the paperwork, the copy cat ninja spotted some suspicious civilians hanging by the entrance of the hotel. They had scowls on their faces and seemed to be scanning every person that walked by them. Hurrying back upstairs, Kakashi shared his findings with Sasuke and Sakura.

"Let's take the roof then." Sakura suggested.

"If we take the roof, we become easy targets. We'll be out in the open with no where to blend in." Sasuke pointed out.

"The ninjas don't know what our Henges look like. The biggest problem is moving Naruto while he's unconscious. We can't drag him through town looking like he's dead." Kakashi commented, contemplating their options.

"Can we place a Genjutsu over him to make him invisible?" Sakura asked.

"It won't fool high level Genjutsu ninjas. We can't take that risk." Kakashi replied.

"Then why don't we put him in the stasis scroll until we get out of town? It won't be for very long and we can remove him as soon as it's safe to do so." Sasuke suggested.

"I don't want to put him at risk. What if it does more harm to him?" Sakura argued.

"Unless you have another suggestion, we don't have much of a choice at this point."

"It could end up killing him! We were lucky nothing happened the first time!"

"He could die now if we don't get him help soon!"

"ENOUGH" Kakashi ordered, snapping the two ninjas to attention. "Sakura, we don't have any other options. I'll place him in the stasis until we clear the town boundaries. You can take him from there. Now let's go." Kakashi pulled out the stasis scroll and sealed Naruto into it before returning the scroll into his vest. Sakura frowned but followed her teacher as they all henged and left the hotel. They passed the suspicious civilians, making sure to not bring any attention to themselves.

All over town, they spotted ninjas running around on the rooftops and henged ninjas investigating the different shops. The trio made their way through town, pretending to window shop and play the role of tourists to blend in with their surroundings. Once they made it out of town, they headed to the treetops and began running towards Konoha. About 5 miles outside of town, they stopped to make sure they weren't being followed. Deeming themselves safe for now, Kakashi removed Naruto from the stasis scroll and Sakura performed a quick scan on him to make sure he hadn't been harmed further.

"He's good. Let's go." Sakura scooped Naruto onto her back in a piggy back style and ran in between Sasuke and Sakura. It took seven hours to reach Konoha, the trio rushed through the gates with the guards from the gate chasing them due to a lack of a clearance check. Arriving at the hospital, Kakashi summoned Tsunade with a dog messenger while he dealt with the guards. Tsunade arrived 5 minutes later, breathless and pale.

"Is it true Kakashi? You found him?" She whispered, her eyes searching the room. They landed on the pale blonde and she choked on her sob as she approached him, her hands shaking as she gently ran her fingers through his hair. Tears ran down her face as she took looked him over, noting his injuries and the severity of the torture that had occurred to him in his absence from the village. "I'm so sorry Naruto."

"Tsunade, can you help him?" Sakura asked as she watched her mentor begin to break down.

"Of course! Get me Shizune! I'll need you as well. I want a full medical team in Room 3 in ten minutes and I need the Nara clan. NOW!" Tsunade rattled off instructions as she set about preparing for the next task. She scooped Naruto up from Sakura and placed him in a hospital bed before she began to wheel him off to the medical examination room. Within 10 minutes, Tsunade and all of the medical Konoha staff was in surgery, racing to save the Jinchuriki of Konoha. Kakashi and Sasuke had to wait outside, unable to do anything but sit and wonder how the procedure was going.

After 5 hours, Tsunade came out, sending the rest of the medical team off to rest. Kakashi and Sasuke stood up and went over to her, worry on the younger ninja's face while the elder tried to keep his face neutral to avoid showing his concern. "He's resting. I managed to heal most of the physical injuries, but he'll be on bed rest for at least 3 more weeks. I don't know when he'll wake up. Sakura is with him now. You can go in." Tsunade answered before either of them could question her. Sasuke rushed into the room, but Kakashi stayed where he was.

"How bad is it really?" He asked.

"He's lucky to still be breathing, especially because Kyubi wasn't healing him. I don't know what happened to him, but heads will roll. I have some research to do to figure out how to restore the Kyubi's healing factor for Naruto. That should speed up the healing time. In the meantime, he'll be under 24/7 surveilince and this is a rank S mission. No one is to know that Naruto is here. I want to find the ninjas that did this to him and figure out what they were trying to do to him." Tsunade stormed off, Shizune following her after taking a quick glance at the silver-haired ninja. Once the two had left, Kakashi closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was listening that his student was still alive. Then he took a breath and walked into Naruto's room.


End file.
